Carli Freeman is a New York City-based writer. She writes extensively for musical theatre and is currently a lyricist in the Tony Award-winning BMI Lehman Engel workshop. Outside of theatre, her works include audio dramas, kids’ books, and TV pilot scripts.

Two of her 20-minute musicals premiered at Lincoln Center as staged readings. She co-wrote Divorce Party, a short musical selected for Theatre Now’s SOUND BITES 13 Annual Festival of 10-Minute Musicals hosted by Andrew Lippa (Addams Family, Wild Party) at Symphony Space. In 2019, her full-length musical The Shakespeare Company was performed at Fordham Universty and featured in the Fordham Observer.

Beginning in 2021, Carli wrote and directed three seasons of Me, Sadie, and the Mixed-Up Time Machine, an audio drama available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and more. She’s also co-written eight children’s mysteries.

In college, Carli studied television writing and loved writing pilot scripts. After graduation, she chose the normal career path for TV majors: federal government. She spent almost four years as a federal employee with GSA’s Public Buildings Service before joining the New York Public Library. A certified project manager, Carli loves bringing her non-writing career experiences to creative projects.

Carli holds a B.A. in Film & Television from Fordham University and an MBA from Champlain College, where her capstone project focused on the economics of producing new theatre.

A native of Nashville, TN, Carli homeschooled for all of K-12 and spent way too much time at the piano, which probably explains why she’s still writing too many musicals.